No fees 4G service ideas

I'm on the hunt for the tablet, ipad etc that is easy enough to buy but I don't want the monthly charge (and the taxes) that come with 4G service on it.

I also don't want/will it work for me to just rely on wi-fi only.

So after lots of searching I'm working on this www.freedompop.com device for an ipod.. The young kid who got me on this has it up and going and spends nothing on cell/text service each month. That's my kind of kid.

It gives you free wi-fi and G4 (500mb) free each month (I know not a huge amount) but its a start. I can at least pay a la carte, busy month fine but not every month just because.

I'm wondering if anyone else has a better scheme or had any experience with this?

(To me its the monthly fees that we all get used to paying like rote that make me nuts.)

They look a lot like Clear. I was looking through their service, and their free 2GB plan seems interesting if somewhat limited. I bet they get their money from the "freemium" model; get people to upgrade after finding that they need more data.

Have you thought about tethering data from your phone? If you have a smartphone that is rooted/jailbroken, you can tether for free. I have a WiFi only tablet, and I just turn on my hot spot with one touch on my phone, and bam, internet when I need it. Just a thought.

What will you be using your tablet for? That's really going to answer your connectivity question. I don't use my tablet for any work related outside of emails and invoicing, and I feel that Wi-Fi is just fine for that sort of thing. Plus, a tablet is just a smartphone with a larger screen, so if I can do everything on my phone that I can on my tablet; including making calls (via Google voice / GrooveIP).